THE POWER OF PRAYER!

There were times I just wanted to go home to be with Jesus because it hurt so badly. We’ve probably all been there at some time! But I had to make a decision. I had to decide that no matter what I felt like, I was healed. When I made that decision, and when I began to stir up the life of God in me by speaking the Word, every pain disappeared! The devil will knock on our door, and he’s going to try to get us to look out the window at that sickness and disease. He’ll try and put pain on us. But the whole time he’s doing that, deep on the inside of us where God lives, there’s life! There’s healing, and it’s ours for the taking.

I just want to give God some praise and Glory for being the Head of my life. The Book of Luke records the story of a paralytic man whose four friends tried to bring him before Jesus. However, when they reached the home where Jesus was, the place was so crowded that they couldn’t get in. So they carried their friend to the top of the house, broke through the roof, and lowered him in front of Jesus (see Luke 5:17-26). Now this paralytic man was not, as is commonly supposed, healed through the faith of the men who brought him to Jesus. No, he was healed through his own faith. His healing was the result of his own exercise of bold, obedient faith.

I can so relate to this because in May 2003, I lost my vision and the doctor’s had no reclamation why. At the time I was a teacher, and an English teacher at that. How in the world would I be able to work? I lost my job and all of my belongings. I thought family, friends and even my church would help. God let me know that I had to work this one out for myself. As I took treatments and medications my vision become clearer but not 100%. So for the next few years, I was unable to gain full-time employment. This was a very difficult experience for me. I now went from close to a $60,000 salary to no salary. I lost my car, no one to be found. God reminded me that during this difficult time that He was still there.

We’re not meant to live an ordinary life; we’re meant to live a supernatural life in Christ. The Bible says that when we walk, God walks. When we talk, God talks. God is bigger than who we are in our natural bodies, and He wants us to live in a place of light and revelation, a place of divine health. It’s time for us to speak what the Word of God says and get a revelation of Who is in us. We can walk triumphantly through any situation, because we have God Almighty dwelling on the inside. There’s no problem no sickness or disease that can keep us down!

On September 22, 2014, I remember visiting the doctor in Wilmington, DE, I recall so clearly the doctor coming into the office and him saying, ‘I had to have brain surgery. ’I begun to cry and deep down I wanted to know why my God was allowing this to happen to me. “God, why me!” The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Why not you!” The doctor said, “There was fluid on my brain and it was much. The surgery was not an option. He reminded me that this had been going on far too long, since May 2003 but had previously been maintained by medicine On Friday Oct. 3, 2014, I had a surgery where doctor’s placed a shunt in my head to stop the fluid and to possibly stop any bleeding or swelling. This was the most painful surgery that I had ever had. It felt like I just could not wake up. I had the first surgery and came out of surgery at 6:30 p.m. at night. I was then told that another surgery was needed, and that the shunt had a malfunction and it needed to be repaired before additional swelling took place.

By now, my Spirit Man is completely terrified. Three days later, October 8,2014, I had my second surgery where the doctor’s repaired the shunt. I woke up to major swelling to the right side of my head. After four days, I was up walking and receiving rehabilitation. It was a slow process but God intervened. My testimony I walked away without little to no therapy. Today is Day 38 from the first surgery and Day 33 from the second surgery. Praise God, I am still here and still standing. What the devil meant for my bad God turned it around for my good.

I have had over half a dozen mammograms. Doctors state that I am a high risk for breast cancer. Thankful that breast cancer CAN NOT, WILL NOT AND SHALL NOT take me out. The enemy knows that the only way that he can attack me is through my health. You notice the thing that he tried to attack was my mind. The paralytic man, in the Bible, was not healed the moment Jesus said, “Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house” (Luke 5:24). It wasn’t until the man made an effort to rise up off his mat that the power of God was released. The faith of the paralytic man’s friends brought him to the feet of Jesus, but it was his own faith that took him off his bed of affliction. Part of faith is believing which starts in your mind. I am cancer free!

At times I have been led by the Spirit of God to tell people to arise and walk. And as some of them attempted to rise, we had to hold them up. I had to encourage them to keep their eyes on Jesus. “Don’t walk in your strength,” I would tell them. “Walk in His strength.” It takes faith to do that. The Word is what kept me during this time because I understood that healing was a process. Well, what do you do at such times? When it looks as though nothing has worked, what do you do?

We have to cooperate with God by believing in Him and doing what we can to act on His Word if we want to get His blessing. It may seem as if it is impossible, but if we will make the effort, His power will meet us and take over from there. Just as the paralytic man in Luke chapter 5 and the bedfast woman given up by her doctors to die arose from their impossible situations, we, too, can “arise and walk” in the mighty Name of Jesus.

How important it is for us to realize that receiving our healing is easy and it’s simple. Jesus is the Healer, and He took, bore, and carried every sickness and disease so that we wouldn’t have to (Isa. 53:4–5; 1 Peter 2:24). It is not the will of God for us to be sick but for us to walk in life and divine health.

Right now, whether it feels like it or not, healing and wholeness are ours. In the natural, we’re hooked up with our five senses. We’re moved by what we see, feel, and hear. We’re moved by this natural realm because we’re human. But God wants us to be moved by what we believe by what His Word says (2 Cor. 5:7).

Emotional Healing

As I begun to walk through the physical healing, God said, “Now, I need you to forgive those that hurt you. Yes, that is part of your healing process.” “Really God, they hurt me and you mean I need to forgive them.” Sometimes, people can hurt us deeply. The hurt can be so deep that it goes to our inner man. Ever, been hurt and you see the person and you want them to hurt to. You want them to feel what you feel. God’s Word says to let go and let GOD. We have the anointing and power of God. And with that power, we can take what God says in His Word, believe it, act on it, and receive it for ourselves.

And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. And there he found a cer­tain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord.

—Acts 9:32–35

This portion of Scripture tells the story of a helpless paralytic named Aeneas, who was healed when Peter told him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you . . .” (Acts 9:34 Weymouth). As the story opens, we see a man named Peter who has been scurrying from town to town, village to village, synagogue to synagogue, and anywhere else he could find to preach.

From my healing, I tell everyone I come in contact with. Peter is telling people everywhere about Jesus Christ, the Man with whom he walked; the Man whom he saw die on the Cross for them; the Man whom he saw ascend from the Mount of Olives on a cloud of glory after telling His disciples, “…tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

And now Peter has come to Lydda. Can’t you just see him as he finishes his first service and one of the brethren runs up to him and says, “Oh, Peter, we’ve got a sad case, a man by the name of

Aeneas. He has been paralyzed for eight years. Will you go see him? He can’t make it out to the services”? A person can’t receive from God beyond his actual knowledge of God’s Word. So to develop faith for healing, you must discover what the Word says about it.

Then meditate upon those scriptures until your heart is settled on the fact that healing is God’s will for you! Continually confess and believe that “by Jesus’ stripes, I was healed” nothing wavering and meditate on Isaiah 53:5, First Peter 2:24, and Matthew 8:17. Then as First John 5:14–15 states, be confident (1) that you’ve prayed according to God’s will; (2) that He has heard you; and (3) that you have the petition you desire of Him!

Church Hurt

The hurting church is not an occasional dilemma. More and more often we find people who have been hurt deeply within the family of God, leaving them worn and exhausted. More and more often we find leaders in conflict within the body of believers, robbed of the joy Jesus promised in Him. When we find this hurt hanging on to our own bruised soul, it can make us want to leave the church and sometimes even want to “back burner” our God who seems to have allowed it all. Church hurt made me bitter. After 20 years I can truly say, “I have gone from bitter to better. I had to learn not to place my Trust in Man. This thing called church hurt can cause major scars.

We don’t like to focus on the devil. We don’t want to give him any glory. Yet, in failing to heed the warning of Scripture that the devil actually “prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), we find ourselves consumed (devoured!) by all kinds of irritations in one another and in the church.How the new programs run, personalities of the leaders, worship styles that become the focus and the quarrel, people who “just don’t get it” spiritually the way we do, all begin to rob us of our joy and steal our effectiveness as a body of believers. And we are so often oblivious to what is really going on in the spiritual realm. Scripture says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers…” (Ephesians 6:12) When in conflict with another believer, we need to ask ourselves the question,“Am I wrestling against flesh and blood?”

Keep your mind stayed on JESUS! Be alert and always keep on praying” (Ephesians 6:18) When prayer is no longer the oxygen of our spiritual soul or the heartbeat of our church, our defense is down. Praying for those who hurt us becomes something we don’t even want to do. Neglect in prayer and in the spiritual training of the Word leaves us with open doors for the enemy to turn the wrestling match on one another.

It is so subtle and we can feel so justified, but the loss in our own hearts and in the Kingdom is an unnecessary tragedy. The stealing and robbing is done long before we have even recognized the enemy was at the door. Knowing he is prowling the neighborhood keeps us in a proactive state and able to recognize and withstand his tactics. When God heals you there is nothing like being whole. Based on God’s Word, I can confidently say to you, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whatever your situation: “Jesus Christ cures you! Arise and receive your healing right now!”

When you made Jesus the Lord of your life, something happened to you. You were created in Christ Jesus. You were given an inheritance. Now, you are in Christ Jesus. You are born of God.
In the physical realm, you were born of your mother. You weren’t created; you were born. But in the spiritual realm, when you were “born of God,” you were re-created by God. A change took place. You were reborn. The Bible says in II Corinthians 5:17 that you became a new creature, a new creation. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” GOD IS A HEALER!!!!

When you accepted Jesus as your Lord, and actual creation took place. The old man – your unregenerated spirit man – was replaced by a new man, created in Christ Jesus. Old things passed away and all things became new. The new birth that occurred in you was done by the creative power of God. It took place inside you in your spirit.